Collapsible Soils in Geotechnical Engineering

Collapsible Soils in Geotechnical Engineering: Theory, Characterization, and Design Innovations provide an advanced reference for understanding, investigating, predicting, and managing wetting-induced collapse in metastable, generally unsaturated natural soils and engineered fills. It links deposit genesis, fabric, mineralogy, and major deposit families, including loess, gypseous, saline, calcareous, residual, volcanic, alluvial, colluvial, and anthropogenic fills, to unsaturated hydro-mechanical behavior. Field investigation, laboratory testing, classification, parameter selection, and uncertainty are integrated with analytical, constitutive, numerical, probabilistic, and data-driven methods for predicting collapse settlement and supporting defensible engineering decisions.

Practice-oriented chapters cover foundation and structural design; earthworks, transportation systems, buried assets, and water infrastructure; ground improvement and stabilization; construction control; monitoring and early warning; and life-cycle asset management. Mitigation options are evaluated in relation to wetting source, treatment depth, constructability, acceptance criteria, durability, cost, carbon, and residual risk. Comparative case histories and forensic lessons are linked with standards, specifications, contracts, governance, climate resilience, sustainability, and emerging technologies to show how solutions should be selected, verified, and managed under realistic project conditions.

Written for BSc, MSc, and PhD students, researchers, consulting engineers, designers, contractors, owners, regulators, and geotechnical risk specialists, the book serves as both an advanced academic text and a practical project reference. It guides readers from early recognition and ground-model development through investigation, characterization, prediction, design, treatment selection, construction verification, monitoring, and long-term performance management.